According to industry sources, motherboard major Gigabyte is closing the gap between it and ASUS in terms of motherboard shipments, so much so, that the two industry giants could entangle in a price-war. Gigabyte's shipments are estimated by market observers to have reached 3.1 to 3.3 million in the first two months of 2010, while that of ASUS for the same period were estimated to be 3.2 to 3.3 million.

To maintain its vulnerable lead, ASUS may shortly cut prices across the board and that could trigger a price-war in the motherboard industry, say sources in channel vendors. ASUS is currently planning to reshuffle some of its staff in the motherboard business unit. While ASUS refused to comment in this issue, Gigabyte said that the estimates concerning it are very close to the company's internal figures.

As much as I hope this price war ensues (I am a consumer ) I also wanted to point out this could include many more manufactures, well if they did care about the non OEMmarket, foxconn and abit are big time manufactors, they might want to stay competitive as well, but my real question is:

I may be wrong but Ford owns Ferrari right? anyways, say they do, Ford is the major company and their subsidiaries are the motherboard lines, lets say Ford, VW and GM get into a price war, they are going to gouge their lower end models to compete, but Ford and VW arent going to Slash ferrari and lambo prices, would this be true for Asus ans Gigabyte top of the line shit, like crosshairs and formula extremes,will those be slashed as well?

Might be a good time upcoming to pick up that 890FX board from asus if all goes according to my plan

If you want this price-war to ensue, buy more Gigabyte and save kittehs.

Gigabyte deserves being the best. Despite sticking to its characteristic "blue" board and being subjectively low on aesthetics (blue is the new green), their boards are highly practical and durable. So it's putting more effort in getting this far.

but Ford and VW arent going to Slash ferrari and lambo prices, would this be true for Asus ans Gigabyte top of the line shit, like crosshairs and formula extremes,will those be slashed as well?

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Your analogy isn't quite correct in that Ferrari & Lambo build their cars from the ground up with parts unique to each company - you would struggle to find a single common item between the two cars.

Now the analogy would be more accurate if Ferraris and Lambos were based around common features and standards. To make it analogous to the motherboard industry, the two cars would be based around the same engine (CPU socket), and same chassis (chipset), which would limit each company with standards like having four wheels of the same size (PCIe lanes, etc). All this hugely limits the scope each company can differentiate. Sure, they can each put a different body on it, and can add in things like a flash stereo and air-conditioning, but beyond that the two products are very, very similar.

I guess what I'm saying is that there could well be price-drops on the top-of-the-range gear, but you are right in that it is unlikely to be as much as the motherboards in the middle & lower tiers, cause at the end of the day they don't sell a lot of the chrome-plated, bells-and-whistles gear.

Your analogy isn't quite correct in that Ferrari & Lambo build their cars from the ground up with parts unique to each company - you would struggle to find a single common item between the two cars.

Now the analogy would be more accurate if Ferraris and Lambos were based around common features and standards. To make it analogous to the motherboard industry, the two cars would be based around the same engine (CPU socket), and same chassis (chipset), which would limit each company with standards like having four wheels of the same size (PCIe lanes, etc). All this hugely limits the scope each company can differentiate. Sure, they can each put a different body on it, and can add in things like a flash stereo and air-conditioning, but beyond that the two products are very, very similar.

I guess what I'm saying is that there could well be price-drops on the top-of-the-range gear, but you are right in that it is unlikely to be as much as the motherboards in the middle & lower tiers, cause at the end of the day they don't sell a lot of the chrome-plated, bells-and-whistles gear.

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Having said all that - Ferrari is part of the Fiat Group, so expect some Fiat parts, Lambo is part of Volkswagen - Audi (Porsche) so again... Aston Martin used to be owned by Ford, and had Ford Fiesta switch gear at one time... (as well as door handles from a Morris Ital)

Having said all that - Ferrari is part of the Fiat Group, so expect some Fiat parts, Lambo is part of Volkswagen - Audi (Porsche) so again... Aston Martin used to be owned by Ford, and had Ford Fiesta switch gear at one time... (as well as door handles from a Morris Ital)

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Yep. They're all part of the new world order too

It's all a bit off track though, as I said, car's aren't reliant on the same motors (CPUs) or chassis (chipsets), so it's hard to compare the two. About the only thing that is the same between any two cars is that they run off petrol. But that's like observing that motherboards are powered by electricity.

If you want this price-war to ensue, buy more Gigabyte and save kittehs.

Gigabyte deserves being the best. Despite sticking to its characteristic "blue" board and being subjectively low on aesthetics (blue is the new green), their boards are highly practical and durable. So it's putting more effort in getting this far.

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Agreed. In my educated opinion, Gigabyte has the best lineup of x58 and p55 boards on the market. I've used most of them. They are well build, incredibly stable and the bios is second only to the legendary DFI Genie bios. They have certainly earned this market share.

If you want this price-war to ensue, buy more Gigabyte and save kittehs.

Gigabyte deserves being the best. Despite sticking to its characteristic "blue" board and being subjectively low on aesthetics (blue is the new green), their boards are highly practical and durable. So it's putting more effort in getting this far.

Click to expand...

by far they will always be the "safer choice" i always need to see what there gonna do first b4 i do _______. Take UD6-UD7 890FX, i mean i know I'm gonna get formula but i still need to see theirs first lol. I had a gigabyte board that stayed OCED for 6 years and it still boots OCed. However most people after a "cycle" want to do something diff or step outside what they know. After i went Crosshair 3 um lol not turning back so fast lol. They got great boards at MSI too (but only in the last 2 years worth really mentioning. when they stopped going "red" (which they should have never changed) they had a huge gray area of blehhh.

The last major launch (P55) launch for Gigabyte they had the cleanest looking, priced nice, board for everyone,options featured, lineup that I've seen from any company ....like... ever? They all looked like soldiers posing for graduation picture. So they defiantly been doing good for some time. (not as long as some would think... i think it just seems like longer time cause they weren't always so great.. i just think people don't remember that cause there are great boards out now. They've had some pretty big flops too.

yea, i understood the car thing wasnt the best, but it was just a generality, anywho, I have owned only asus or gigabyte boards for my own use, I love gigabyte, like btnaur said, rock solid, reliable boards for sure, and if you check my post history,( down at the bottom) I did manage a pretty sick stable overclock on my proc at a really low voltage, still usingthe same timing this day, over a year later

This is the kind of news that gets me excited! Always been loyal to ASUS but since a buddy of mine picked up the EP45-UD3P a while back I've been hugely impressed by Gigabyte regardless of their unorthodox color schemes.

Though I'm afraid my next board is looks to be one of ASUS' Crosshair IV boards.